Study of Development of Servo Cold-Roll Forming Machine

— Forming of Flexible Sections I —

Abstract

Until recently, the only products that can be formed using a conventional cold-roll forming machine are those with cross-sectional profiles constrained to a single width along the longitudinal axis. Products with cross sections of various widths in the longitudinal direction, namely, flexible cross sections, were conventionally fabricated by the press forming method. The servo cold-roll forming machine was developed to yield products with cross-sectional profiles of various widths in the longitudinal direction. This new flexible cold-roll forming method has a number of technical, economical, and ecological advantages such as higher production efficiency, lower initial cost, and wider range of product sizes and materials that can be processed. In this paper, the newly developed servo cold-roll forming machine and the products formed by this machine are introduced.